Is Canada missing the boat on cycling tourists?

Only Quebec has world-class cycling network that crosses the province.

For Steve Langston, a Winnipegger with 30,000 kilometres of world-wide bike travel under his belt, the cycling trails in Quebec felt “like Amsterdam,” and proved a rare exception to most others he’d traversed across this country.

“It was so great. …It’s just well thought out, well executed,” said Langston, 30, who’s written guidebooks on cycling Canada and Manitoba. Quebec, he says, has “hit a scale where you can go wherever you want.”

Quebec is internationally recognized for its extensive 5,000-km cycling network, La Route Verte, which criss-crosses most parts of the province, making it North America’s longest bike path.

But in the two decades since the Quebec government and non-profit Vélo Québec first began work on the route, it remains an anomaly in Canada, even as other countries and regions seek to cash in on the booming trade in cycle tourism.

Ontario is in the midst of its own push to become a cycling destination and is gleaning knowledge from the 80-employee non-profit powerhouse next door in Quebec, which not only runs the cycle route, but also organizes tours, produces maps and does research on cycling in the province.